Blair's honours list vetted to avoid sleaze risk

By Graeme Wilson, Political Correspondent

12:01AM BST 16 May 2007

Tony Blair has been forced to allow an independent appointments watchdog to vet his resignation honours list, it emerged last night.

The Prime Minister, battered by allegations of sleaze over the past decade, has had to surrender the right his predecessors enjoyed - handing out at their own discretion peerages and other honours to allies and staff when they left Downing Street.

Mr Blair has agreed to allow the House of Lords Appointments Commission to carry out propriety checks on the names he puts forward - the same checks it now carries out on all nominations for peerages. The decision follows talks between Number 10 and the commission.

The move strips Mr Blair of one of the last perks of office but also reduces the prospect of a rerun of the so-called Lavender List put forward by Harold Wilson when he left Number 10 in 1976.

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The list was nicknamed because it was reportedly drawn up on lavender notepaper by the head of his political office, Marcia Williams (later Lady Falkender), although she denied the claim.

It honoured Lord Kagan, the textile tycoon who was later jailed for fraud, and Sir Eric Miller, a property millionaire who committed suicide while under investigation by the fraud squad.

Details of Mr Blair's deal emerged yesterday when Sir Alistair Graham, the outgoing chairman of the committee on standards in public life, made a valedictory appearance before a Commons select committee.

Asked for his views on resignation honours, Sir Alistair told the public administration committee: "We do not need them and as we know from a previous Labour Prime Minister, a resignation honours list can tarnish your reputation."

Tony Wright, the Labour committee chairman, then revealed that he had been told that Mr Blair had agreed that the commission could vet his list.

It is understood talks took place after Lord Stevenson, the commission's chairman, was asked if he would vet the list during an earlier appearance before the select committee.

As the commission was only set up in 2000 - and had not had to deal with a Prime Minister's resignation - Lord Stevenson held talks with Number 10 and it was agreed that all names could be vetted.

The commission last night confirmed the agreement.

A spokeswoman said: "We are not choosing people on the list. We will carry out checks on their propriety to make sure they have made tax payments and so on."

Under its rules, the commission will ascertain whether people are resident in the UK for tax purposes and have not been involved in activities, roles or positions that could lead to a conflict of interest. It will also check if they have made any donations to political parties over the past five years.

Sir Alistair had told the committee that he believed there was a link between people making big donations to political parties and receiving honours. "It looks as if there could be some relationship between the two," he said. He was "angry" that Number 10 had still not found a permanent replacement for him and said there should be no complacency about the lack of corruption in British politics.

"There is a danger that we pride ourselves on being the cleanest system when along comes something like loans for peerages, and then along comes something like stopping an important inquiry [into allegations of corruption involving BAe in Saudi Arabia] and our reputation does not look quite so good," he said.